While I share some of the frustrations Neil DeGrasse Tyson has with those who endlessly debate inane philosophical points, l a bit am wary of those dismiss all philosophical inquiry or ethical questions as pointless inhibitions on the road to progress. Such admonitions bring to mind the utopian efforts of the eugenicists, a group who surely were not questioned enough about the details and implications of their premises, objectives and methods.  Those involved in the experiments upon Albert Stevens and others could have benefitted from "asking deep questions". Elsewhere, similar avenues of research, divorced from any inhibiting tendencies that philosophical reflection and debate might have produced, resulted in Buchenwald. 

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....Venice just voted to secede from Italy.


It's not just one very wet town either, it's a chunk of northern Italy that includes cities as big as Trieste and Trento.

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1

That map is strange, because it doesn't show the Adriatic. What in hell is "Istria"?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Mon Mar 24 11:20:56 2014 (+rSRq)

2 I'm waiting for Catalonia to start raising hell again.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Mon Mar 24 11:21:30 2014 (+rSRq)

3

Ha!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_self-determination_referendum

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Mon Mar 24 12:07:14 2014 (+rSRq)

4

That map is strange, because it doesn't show the Adriatic.

Here is a map with actual relief:

What in hell is "Istria"?

A peninsula that juts into the Adriatic.


Here are two maps I couldn't find last night that do a better job with scale and position:



It's a bit smaller than West Virginia., but it's on the Adriatic...and a good chunk of it is in the Alps. It also , encompasses a good bit of the fertile Po Valley, borders the Po river and contains, in addition to the tourist centers like Venice and Alpine ski lodges, Trieste, a major deepwater port and shipbuilding center. There is a a good deal of hydroelectric power, as well as there are established timber farms as well as various mines in the Alps.the area, especially around Trieste is a major trade corridor for eastern Europe,  This little lot of land just generally seems to have been designed by geographers for maximum "win"on minimum space.

_{(Or is a set designed by Hayao Miyazaki. )}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Mar 24 13:32:59 2014 (DnAJl)

5 Well....THAT last comment of mine could have used some proofreading.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Mar 24 13:35:09 2014 (DnAJl)

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In compliance with FCC requirements that a certain percentage of our content be educational, we feel we should point to this...

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I've never really groked Touhou. Then I blundered across this primer which explains everything...

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This is interesting.
We've discussed amusing Mercator follies before, but this really drives home just how freaking huge Africa really is. As it straddles the equator, Africa (like South America) tends to receive maximal Mercator minimization.



Note that there is still space left over... I'm sure that one could squeeze Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and some of the Balkans in there at least.

The map is nicked from this article which touches on the rather surprising great game pantomime between China and Japan in Africa.

Interestingly, while it does note that they are "playing different games", with Japan looking to open new markets and China focused on 'soft power', China's goal is expressed mainly in obtaining African support for Chinesse policies in the United Nations.

However, China's big goal seems to be resource utilization. Of course Africa is exceedingly rich in minerals and China's buying up mines is fairly well known, however there is a more basic resource that China is very interested in that Africa can provide....food.

China has been buying up arable land in Africa to compensate for their lack of such back home and setting up plantations.  More on that here, here and here. This is all going on with little notice due to the unfortunate tendency to ignore the vast and underdeveloped continent.


more...

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...disquisition on Edmund Burke's views on morality and how it ties into traffic safety and the philosophy of John Ford, let this be it.

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Ace has thoughts on the alpha intellects who struggle mightily with the Sisyphean task of dragging us ungrateful fools kicking and screaming into the future of blissful yet responsible nirvana that they have so benevolently chosen to bestow upon those of us, who, due to our profound ignorance, are unaware that we are part of the unworthy, ungrateful and barely sentient hoi polloi, and who, without our better's magnanimous guidance would have long since perished by aspirating our own foetid benightedness.

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Many however, don't want to believe this.
For them we provide a comforting lie:
"That asshsat that Buzz Aldrin punched didn't know the HALF of it!"

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I've been struggling for some time with a couple of half written posts. However, while there is grist aplenty for them, words are failing me...there is just so much to address.

Don however, has summed it all up in one sentence.

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I'll just leave this Drudge-ism here....

more...

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In keeping with the carefree and optimistic tone of the previous two posts, I find myself asking recently why the story about the Stingers has gotten so little coverage except in overseas papers and certain partisan circles here.

^{"Oh God. Did you say "partisan? 'cause I was kinda' hoping to make friends!"}

Indeed. Not only does my inquiry involve the "P" word it focuses on the particular "B" word that people just don't seem quite fearful of looking at too closely, and that "B" involves another "P" word which is Politics and so it goes below the fold.

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Well, the verdict in the Zimmerman trial came down. It was not the result most in the media desired.

As I type this there seems to have been only the most sporadic vandalism, and then in locations where any excuse will foment mischief so that hardly counts.

This relative calm was despite considerable efforts by certain parties in the media and elsewhere to fan the flames of violence.

Those incitements were in vain and I feel pretty damned good about that.

UPDATE: The prosecution receives some harsh words from 'The Dersh'. WOW!

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...when one has to conclude that they are just trolling us.

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So...you strike a blow for civil liberties.....by leaking classified, highly sensitive info that you feel really needs to get out.

OK.

It also has potential to do much harm and you are likely to be prosecuted.

'Kaaaay.

Which stalwart defender of free speech and liberty do you flee to?

Switzerland
New Zealand
The Cayman Islands
Sealand
Liechtenstein
Iceland
Finland
...
...
CHINA *

OK I'll kind of agree with him on SeaLand. Also,  Canada and Australia are off because of very very strong extradition treaties with the US...but on the other hand.. CHINA? Seriously!?

I'm entertaining the admittedly odd theory that this is actually a Chinese move to embarrass the US and...assuming the guy has as much info as he says he has....pull off an intel coup.

Now intel coups generally don't involve one side running around saying things like "Hey Hiiiiiitler...We've got ENIIIIIGMAAA!" but in this case the data trove is...ummm...not easy to make obsolete.

I think that to the Chinese, starting a debate about civil liberties in the US is seen a major blow against us. Any reduction in state surveillance, to them, probably seems like a debilitating action. They simply don't grok the benefit of civil liberties, but they fully understand the power of information monitoring.

Even if this wasn't initiated by the Chinese, having this fellow in Hong Kong does not give me the warm fuzzies.

Did he defect or did he derp?

In one sense it doesn't matter, any damage is done and we still have the root problem to contend with.


UPDATE: Jerry Pournelle has thoughts on the nightmares of the moment.

UPDATE 2 23:07: Professor Jacobson points out something I'd utterly missed.
The revelations came at an opportune time for the Chinese in that they rather neutered US complaints about Chinese spying.
more...

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Well.
That doesn't cheer me up at all.

God I haet politics.

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So...
I have some friends on Twitter who wonder "What's the big deal?" "Why RU so upset? H8er!!!" I have one friend who wrote in Davros in the last election...because he couldn't see any difference.
140 characters is not enough to explain anything involving complexity,
so for them I'll go point by point to the best of my abi....what?

^{"PoliTIIIIIIICCSSSS!" "Oh GOD! MAKE HER STOP" "Put it below the fold PLEASE!"}

Oh right...

Sorry...
Below the fold it goes!

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Hey kids! Here's your quote for the day!

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Exam day. I have no time but there is a full-on old-fashioned filibuster going on now.

This is a really compelling speech.

It may well be a historic one.

Senator/Doctor Paul is going to talk till he drops, or the President states categorically that he rejects drone strikes on American citizens. More here.

C-Span feed here.


"...are signature strikes going to be the standard for law enforcement?"


Interestingly, Drudge posts a headline with just the correct amount of hype.
more...

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